Boston killings a game-changer?

In addressing
the shooting deaths of three women in Dorchester last weekend, the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, executive director of the Ten Point Coalition, said at a community meeting Wednesday night, “We need a cultural game changer.” The next day at another community meeting, he exhorted, “A line has been crossed!”

For many, the killing of three women at once is unprecedented. But Brown’s words were themselves a tragedy because nothing thus far has truly changed the game. The cycle of gun tragedy is the cobra that will not die, from 12-year-old Darlene Tiffany Moore in 1988 to 9-year-old Eric Shepard and honors student Louis Brown in the 1990s, from 10-year-old Trina Persad in 2002 to the 2010 Mattapan massacre that claimed a toddler. Now, once again, there are community meetings calling for unity and courage, rallies against violence, and nightwalks telling perpetrators who owns the streets.